Reno Opera meets fundraising goal, sets April performance

Feb. 25, 2009

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In late January, Nevada Opera officials announced that the 41-year-old company was on the verge of collapse and would close if it didn't raise $100,000 in just four weeks. Today, the message is more upbeat.

The group surpassed its $100,000 goal, meeting the requirements for a $50,000 challenge donation and will produce "La Boheme" in April. Opera board president Randi Thompson said the group has $165,000 and received pledges for about $20,000 more.

"I'm touched by the community's response," Thompson said. "To me, that just indicates how important the arts are to our community.

"Right before our town hall meeting, I'd say most of us were ready to just file for bankruptcy. We had just had our audit, and our auditor said, 'I have never seen a company come back from this kind of debt.' "

The $165,000 has not erased all debt but allow the company to move forward with performances of "La Boheme" in April, she said.

"It definitely gets us through 'La Boheme,' and really we're already starting to plan for next year," she said. "It keeps us going but also keeps us going forward as well."

The company benefited from several large donations, including the $50,000 matching pledge, but Thompson and Nevada Opera executive assistant Janet Brown said most of the money came in relatively small donations.

"I would say that we probably received maybe three donations in the $10,000 range, a couple of $5,000," Brown said. "Truly, the bulk of that money came from donations anywhere from $3 to $300.

"Many of the comments and the letters included with the donations were, 'Oh I'm sorry this isn't more.' And I told anyone who said that to me, 'Please, don't be sorry. This is truly how we're making it.' "

When the opera staged a town hall meeting in January, Thompson said she started to believe the $100,000 goal was achievable.

"It really was that town hall meeting, just the encouragement that people gave us that night, and frankly one woman's idea of, 'Can't we just find 85,000 people to just give us one buck?'" she said. "It's the Obama style of giving, and I think he's already shown how it can work. We just sort of went with that philosophy of let's not ask for a lot, let's just ask a lot of people."